In conventional three-dimensional automated vehicle parking garages, mechanical elements or motorized conveyances, such as lifts (elevators), cranes, shuttle cars (moving platforms), turntables, and other mechanical elements are used to transport a vehicle from an entry/exit station at the arrival/departure level of the parking garage to a parking space in the parking garage and then retrieve the vehicle from the parking space and transport the vehicle to the entry/exit station, without human assistance.
A conventional shuttle car typically may comprise a single, unitary platform capable of raising a vehicle, or parts of a vehicle such as the front portion or the back portion, using hydraulic or other means and transporting the vehicle in a horizontal direction. These shuttle cars are generally configured to travel forward and backwards along a same axis. Yook et al. in US Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0031711, describe “a vehicle transport apparatus for parking systems. The vehicle transport apparatus of the present invention includes a first platform, onto which a vehicle is placed, a second platform, which is provided in a parking space, and a pair of carriers and which move between the first platform and the second platform. Each carrier includes a main frame, a drive wheel which is provided in the main frame, a drive motor which rotates the drive wheel; a pair of arms which are rotatably mounted to each of opposite sides of the main frame, and a hydraulic device which rotates the arms. The arms lift the wheels when extracted from the main frame, and the carriers transports the vehicle lifted by the arms from one platform to another platform,” Applicants in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/573,480 and from which this patent application is a continuation-in-part, describe “a system of shuttle cars for transporting a vehicle in an automated parking facility. Each shuttle car includes an x-shuttle that supports two z-shuttles. The z-shuttles move from the x-shuttle and under the vehicle for transport. The z-shuttles locate and engage the front and rear tires of a vehicle to lift the vehicle from the floor. Once the z-shuttles have engaged the vehicle tires, the z-shuttles return to the x-shuttle so that the x-shuttle can transport the vehicle (and the z-shuttles) to and from the appropriate parking space.”